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July 11 — The way congressional districts are drawn should be overhauled and legislative earmarks
should be brought back as part of an effort to renew Americans'
faith in government, a top House Democrat said.

“Washington is too often dysfunctional, and Americans are angry about it—as they should
be,” Rep. Steny Hoyer (Md.), the second-ranking Democrat in the House, said in a July
11 speech at Georgetown University Law Center. “We need to give our people hope that
we can fix what’s broken in Washington—that we can restore their faith in Congress,
renew their faith in government to be an institution that plays a positive role in
their lives.”

The speech was hosted by the law center, the McCourt School of Public Policy and the
Beeck Center for Social Impact.

Hoyer said both parties have used congressional redistricting by partisan state legislatures
to try to gain advantage at the federal level, but need to move away from that model.

“Today, in most parts of the country, congressional district boundaries are drawn
by the politicians themselves. I know. I’ve done it. We all have, and I understand
that neither party wants to be the first to step away from doing so, leaving itself
vulnerable to the other,”
he said. “That’s why we need a national solution that applies the same rules to everyone.
This system isn’t going to end unless both parties work to end it together.”

Hoyer also said the campaign finance system needs to be overhauled by reversing the
Citizens United decision and requiring political action committees to disclose their donors. He also
renewed his call for the Voting Rights Act to be reauthorized.

‘Power of the Purse.'

Hoyer also said earmarks—provisions in annual funding bills meant to prioritize spending
on projects in lawmakers' home districts or states—should be brought back. Republicans
largely prohibited the practice in the House after taking over in 2011, saying it
encouraged unneeded spending.

“Members know far better than administration officials what the immediate and long-term
needs of their districts are, which is why our Founders gave Congress the ‘power of
the purse' to determine budget priorities,”
Hoyer said. “I believe Republicans’ decision to eliminate earmarks altogether has
proven unwise. Let’s put the people’s representatives back in control as our Founders
intended.”

Other steps Hoyer said would help restore faith in government included better use
of technology, such as a website for users to rate government agency interactions—a
“ ‘Yelp'
for government,” in Hoyer's words—and a $3 billion fund to help the government upgrade
its technology and cybersecurity.

“If we can make government as responsive to citizens as our best online businesses
are to their consumers, we can renew the faith our people once had that government
is here to help them improve their lives,” Hoyer said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Jonathan Nicholson in Washington at
jnicholson@bna.com

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Heather Rothman at
hrothman@bna.com

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